3 Famous Test wins for Team India in Australia
India, the World’s No 1 team in ICC Test rankings, are yet to win a Test series in Australia and South Africa.
After 70 years and 11 tours of Australia, India are yet to get off the mark Down Under. In fact, in the 44 Test matches that India have played so far in Australia, they have managed to win only 5. In the last 37 years since 1981, India have won only 2 Test matches in Australia. India’s first 2 Test wins, achieved in the 1977-78 series, were against the depleted Australian side led by Bob Simpson.
In this article, let us enjoy 3 of India’s famous Test wins against Australia in Australia.
1. Melbourne 1981
This was a three-Test series. In the first Test at Sydney, the Australian captain Greg Chappell, playing his first Test match against India, scored a double hundred and the Indian batsmen found Dennis Lillee, Len Pascoe and Rodney Hogg too hot to handle. India lost the first Test by an innings and 4 runs.
India barely managed to save the second Test at Adelaide when Syed Kirmani, Karsan Ghavri and Shivlal Yadav managed to play out 145 balls to hold on to a draw. After surviving 28 balls, Shivlal Yadav had scored the most valuable duck of his career.
India reached Melbourne for the third Test with the series still alive. The Australian captain Greg Chappell won the toss and surprisingly elected to bowl. India started disastrously, losing 3 wickets for 43 runs. But G.R. Viswanath came to India’s rescue and scored a fine century.
The good omen for India was that Viswanath scored a total of 14 Test hundreds in his career and India never lost a Test match in which Viswanath had scored a hundred. India were all out for 237 in the first innings.
In reply, Australia, helped by a century from Allan Border, put up an amazing 419. The first innings lead for Australia was 182. In the 1980s, the Indian team used to bat better in the second innings of a Test match. This prompted one former Prime Minister of the nation to pass a comment that “India should play their second innings first”.
In Melbourne too, India started the second innings on a bright note. Captain Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan put on 165 runs for the first wicket. Their partnership was broken in controversial circumstances. Gavaskar, who was batting so well for the first time in the series, was done in by umpire Rex Whitehead when he failed to detect the inside edge and was adjudged Gavaskar LBW off Dennis Lillee.
Upset over the dubious decision, Gavaskar threatened to walk out along with his opening partner Chetan Chauhan. But the team manager intervened and better sense prevailed.
After that ugly incident, the Indian batsmen lost concentration and from 242 for 2, India slipped to 324 all out. That left Australia to score 143 in the fourth innings to win the match and with that, the series. India’s problems compounded further when both Kapil Dev and off-spinner Shivilal Yadav could not take the field due to injuries. India had only two fit bowlers in Karsan Ghavri and Dilip Doshi at the start of the Australian chase.
India opened the bowling with Karsan Ghavri and Sandeep Patil. Ghavri struck immediately for India when he removed John Dyson for 3. Off the very next delivery, Ghavri cleaned up Australian captain Greg Chappell. At the other end, Dilip Doshi removed the other opener Graham Wood. At the close of play on Day 4, Australia were struggling at 24 for 3 and needed another 119 runs for a win.
The lion-hearted Kapil Dev made his appearance on the bowling crease on the fifth morning after being subjected to a lot of painkillers. He started the bowling proceedings for India along with Dilip Doshi.
Doshi, after conceding a boundary to vice-captain Kim Hughes, bowled him around the legs. It was Kapil Dev’s show thereafter as he bowled unchanged for 17 overs and took the last 5 of the 6 wickets. The sixth wicket, Len Pascoe was run out.
Doug Walters was a threat to India and was holding one end up for the Aussies but couldn’t get enough support at the other end. In the end, Australia were all out for 83 and India achieved their famous Test win in Australia by 59 runs. India managed to level the Test series one-all, which in itself was a moral victory for India.